Terms of Reference (ToR): To Design, Execute, and Evaluate a Sector-Focused Virtual Job Fair (VJF) Pilot Model in Addis Ababa (Bid No. 024/26/SNV)

Purpose of the Assignment

The purpose of this 5-months assignment is to pilot, test, and validate a market-driven, low-cost Virtual Job Fair (VJF) model for Addis Ababa’s urban labor market. The pilot will focus on high-growth sectors with strong potential for mass employment, including the Digital Economy/BPO, Financial Services/FinTech, and Green Economy/Climate-Tech. It will replace traditional, high-cost physical career expos with targeted digital matching tools (infrastructure) and rapid skills-alignment pathways. This initiative will generate practical evidence, employment business cases, and operational learning to inform future scale-up and support adoption by local JobTech platforms and public employment frameworks/systems.

General Objective

The general objective of this assignment is to design, implement, and evaluate a digital, sector-focused Virtual Job Fair model in Addis Ababa over five months. The pilot will connect/place at least 1,000 verified job seekers, with priority given to youth and women, to employers in the digital, financial, and green sectors, while testing employer demand, platform usability, placement conversion rates, and the model’s potential for scale-up.

Specific Objectives

The assignment aims to:

• Evaluate employer willingness to migrate recruitment to virtual ecosystems by aggregating entry-to-mid-level vacancies from target growth-sector companies.
• Establish a standardized digital profiling and screening mechanism that registers urban job seekers, explicitly prioritizing women and youth.
• Assess the functional accessibility and performance of virtual matching tools like Telegram and mobile-optimized web platforms for end-users.
• Optimize matching workflows that actively transition registered job seekers into interviews, shortlists, or active employer selection loops.
• Diagnose the digital literacy, safety, and institutional barriers restricting the participation and career progression of urban women and youth.
• Measure the cost-effectiveness of virtual recruitment by analysing unit costs per registration, interview, and pipeline progression against traditional job fairs.
• Formulate the regulatory, technical, and commercial recommendations necessary for permanent public and private JobTech hosts to adopt and scale the model.

(For details, please refer the ToR)